Finally, a game where we can just relax


By Nathan Jackson
May 6 2005

For Lincoln City, Saturday's game will be a chance to relax and enjoy football, for Yeovil, it's a championship decider. Whilst City are already guaranteed a playoff place, Yeovil need to win to guarantee the title and a defeat could see them crash into the playoffs along with Lincoln.

Well Lincoln haven't had a competitive game like this for ages, a game where we can't lose no matter what happens. The worst that will happen is that we'll have to play away in the second leg. City are guaranteed to be in the playoffs (barring a very very very unlikely 14-0 defeat) so it's a chance to just enjoy football the way it's meant to be enjoyed, or at least from our point of view. Yeovil have to win to guarantee the title, however, a defeat could see them drop into the playoffs.

Francis Green is the only first team player definatly out so other than that, it's all up for grabs. Fans are divided as to whether the Imps should play full strength and go for the win or play a "weak" side to save players for the playoffs. The starting line-up will obviously change the results as I can't see the "weak" team winning against Yeovil whereas the first choice team could repeat the 3-1 of earlier in the season.

Most likely formation (Right to left)

Marriott

McAuley     Morgan        Futcher     McCombe     Sandwith

Butcher    Gain

Yeo      Asamoah   Taylor-Fletcher.

 

Yeovil are an odd team, not because of their football, their manager, ground, staff, fans or even the  people who are too cheap to pay in so stand on the hill behind the ground to watch the game. They're odd because they're most people's 2nd team in this division, a lot of fans often praise Yeovil and say if their club went out of business, they'd support Yeovil.

Suprisingly, the champions elect got off to a less than convincing start, losing 3-1 at Bury before a 1-1 draw at home to Darlington. However, 6 wins in their next 8 league games, including a 6-1 mullering of Oxford saw Yeovil storm up the table. 5 games without a win later and they were looking fairly inconsistant. However, again, a winning run came along as they won 12 out of 14 with only defeats at Lincoln and Oxford dented the record.

However, 8 wins in 17 league games since looks to have prevented Yeovil from gaining promotion by now and if City add to their 6 defeats, they could well finish in the playoff positions.

Yeovil's main advantage has been the goals scored column, no other team has scored more in England, however, their goals against column is amounst the worst in the division.

Yeovil's Biggest Wins - Oxford (6-1), Mansfield (5-2)

Yeovil's Biggest Defeats - Mansfield (4-1), Bury, Notts County, Lincoln, Macclesfield (all 3-1)

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